Modern Wisdom - #1051 - HARDY - The Personal Pain of Country Music

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

HARDY is a singer-songwriter and producer. Odds are, your favorite country song wasn’t written by the person singing it; it was probably written by HARDY (or someone in his writing circle, maybe). So how did a Mississippi country boy become one of Nashville’s most powerful behind-the-scenes writers and producers? Expect to learn what HARDY’s philosophy for his career and life is, what most people do not understand about how the Nashville scene works, how to balance the unique tension between being a songwriter and an artist, the story of the bus crash that almost killed HARDY, how to use vulnerability and turn it into a strength and much more… Sponsors: See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: ⁠https://chriswillx.com/deals⁠ Get up to $350 off the Pod 5 at https://eightsleep.com/modernwisdom Get a Free Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular flavours with your first purchase at https://drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom Get a free bottle of D3K2, an AG1 Welcome Kit, and more when you first subscribe at https://ag1.info/modernwisdom Get 35% off your first subscription on the best supplements from Momentous at https://livemomentous.com/modernwisdom Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: ⁠https://chriswillx.com/books⁠ Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: ⁠https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom⁠ Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/43hv6y59⁠ #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/2rtz7avf⁠ #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/3ccn5vkp⁠ - Get In Touch: Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx⁠ Twitter: ⁠https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx⁠ YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast⁠ Email: ⁠https://chriswillx.com/contact⁠ - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Good news. I'm going back on tour with a brand new live show in Australia, New Zealand and Bali. If you are interested in learning how to overcome imposter syndrome, reach your goals while not missing your entire life, my perspective on where true confidence comes from, everything I've ever discovered about discipline plus brand new insights that I've never spoken about on the podcast, then join me on stage as I explore all of these topics with you. And you can get involved during an extensive Q&A where we work through the biggest questions that you have right now. and Brisbane are completely sold out, but there are still tickets available for Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Christchurch, Auckland, and Bali. And you can get yours right now by going to the link in the description below or heading to chris Williamson.com. Work hard and be nice. Is that basically your career philosophy? Yeah. Have I said that exactly before? I feel like I have. I feel like that's like the number one. You know, honestly, if I put them in order, it would be nice first and work hard. second, not like, you know, don't dismiss working hard, but, man, being, being a good hang

or just being somebody that somebody wants in the room will take you so far, I feel like, in any, any sort of, any job atmosphere at all. Why? I would have assumed, especially in music, if you're some virtuoso guitarist. Nobody likes an asshole, dude. It doesn't matter how good you are or something. I just, nobody wants that person in the room, I feel like. And I just, how many times, I cannot tell you how many times I've done podcasts or we've gotten a VIP tour of something or we had a driver, you know, in L.A. or in New York. And then we've been like, you ever had anybody that was just terrible to work with? And people just remember that, man.

And it's a lot of times it's people that are like really famous and really successful and very talented. And there's just, I know that people like drivers and, you know, people that give Disney World tours and stuff like that are not people that are going to, you know, help advance your career. But I think that transcends stuff like that and just being nice to people and making sure everybody is appreciated and feels comfortable around you. And I just think it's important. There's a guy called Paul Graham, who's an investor and a writer from the UK, who lives in the UK now, who's got this great idea.

Famous jerks are not role models. Some talented people are jerks. And this sometimes makes it seem to the inexperienced that being a jerk is part of being talented. It isn't. Being talented is merely how they get away with being a jerk. Wow. That's really good. I think it's true.

Yeah, totally 100%. The success is not because of them being an asshole. The fact that they are successful is how they get away with being an asshole. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. Would you call it a paradox? A little bit.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it's certainly surprising. because it gives people this idea that, oh, ego is where the success has been, like, cultivated from. Right. As opposed to the fact that, like, the success gave them this buffer zone where people are, I can't be too mean to Hardy because, like, you know, like, look at all the songs he does and stuff, he's a bit of a day or whatever. So, I mean, it's kind of surprising because I think a lot of people in jobs, they see it as being transactional,

that if you are good at X, you will get Y. But there's the packaging that your talent comes in, which is. is like, well, are you a good hang? How are you on the bus? What's your morale like when you've done three shows in three days and everybody's tired? It's like, are you the one that brings everybody up? Or are you the one that's like, oh, dude, this is so tough. This is so hard.

I'm missing the, what, da, do. It's like, everyone's doing that. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's very true, man. And it's just, I've always just kind of thought that it's like, it takes way more effort to be, you know, like an asshole than just to be nice. And there's, I mean, I've, I've had my moments. I mean, for sure.

where I'm exhausted or mentally drained or my meter is at all time zero. And those are moments where I feel like I just get more quiet more than anything. But, man, it's just so much easier to be just nice to people and just keep a smile on your face and keep it light and just do what you got to do. And even if it's something you don't want to do, you do it anyway and have fun with it. And I don't know, it just seems way less effort to do that. In your experience is being a good guy, a performance enhancer, rather than trying to be ruthless and screwing people over? What do you mean by that?

If you're a nice person, are they the ones that end up winning in the end? Because there is a sense that ruthlessness and being cutthroat and, you know, sort of like going for it, aggressive, lean in, oh, well, that's how you achieve success. I don't think, I don't think there's a real true answer to that because I think there's tons of people. I think I would like to think that more nice people win, certainly, but I don't think it's true every time by any means. Well, I'm interested for you, especially about the tension between being a songwriter and an artist, right? Because you've got, you're part of the Nashville engine. I was talking to a friend yesterday who put you as like one of the best three

songwriters in Nashville, which is probably about as competitive as it can be. That's very nice. but you're behind the scenes, you were behind the scenes, then you become in front of the scenes, and now you've got to try and balance these two worlds. What's the tension between being artist and also being, like, contributor to other artists at the same time? I try not to think about it, really. You know, I mean, I'm very thankful to have started out as a songwriter

because I feel like I can jump right in and never skip a beat, I can tour for six months or whatever and barely write a song and then just jump right in and write for somebody else. And it's like not difficult at all. But I've never really thought about the balance or like the pressure between the two at all. I mean, to be completely candid, touring is a lot more lucrative than songwriting. So a little bit of that takes the pressure off of like having to make a career out of songwriting. But I have, I just want to write hits for other people so bad that I will just never not want to do that. It's why I moved to town.

It's my first love. And I just love having great songs and, like, giving that song to somebody and hoping that it helps their career and all that. But I've never really felt pressure. There's definitely been times where I have been like, okay, like I'll hit up my management or link my management and my publishing and be like, hey, guys, we need to find a balance. Like, I need to write more songs because it's just, it's a tank that I have that if it's empty, I, you know, I feel a little bit less sense of purpose if I haven't been writing songs. no matter what they may be. And so, you know, there's times where I become a little more aware that I need to, I need to sort of redistribute my time. But I've never really felt the pressure to do one more than the other or like, you know, one's falling behind. I, you know, I try to keep

them even or anything like that. It's just, I don't know. I try to take the pressure off myself. And I think it makes for more creativity and better creative moments and stuff when you don't feel pressure to write hits or like, you know, pressure to write so many songs or anything like that. What if you write, what if you write a real slammer, there must be a sense in your mind where you go, what do I, is this a me? Do I just like keep this one in the, in the Hardy folder or is this? Yeah, that happens a lot. It happens all the time. Um, they, uh, it's funny. I, uh, there's a lot of songs though that I just, it's a slamer, but it's just not for me. And, and, and, uh, there's a lot of time, a lot of writers that I have, even friends of mine that are like, you sure?

Or like, I can tell, I'm like, man, this would be good for, this would be great for, you know, Blake Shelton. And they're like, oh, yeah, cool. You know, and maybe you was hurt. Yeah, yeah. But even that is very, I usually know, but by the time we get like verse chorus, if I'm going to, if I'm going to cut the song or if I'm going to, you know, give it to someone else or hopefully give it to someone else.

I was talking to John Ballion, he was on the show a couple of weeks ago. And obviously he took this big high. from being an artist to just do the songwriting thing. And he said he knew when he was ready to get back to producing music because he would have this list of demos or whatever. He'd have 15 demos and he'd be showing it to whoever was in the studio with him. And there would always be one or two tracks that he would just like, he'd skip over the top of, he'd leave that one to one side.

He'd never show that. And I thought that was so cute. He was like, oh, I really, really like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, for me, the L.A. approach is very different, I think. But I will say, like, I don't ever play anybody my best stuff, like, ever until it's out. I just like the big reveal of them and, you know, the keep it in a secret. I just feel like it's more of like an explosion when it comes out, even with your friends and stuff.

You know, it's to get Nashville talking about a song is just as important as, like, the public hearing about it, I think. I just think that people buzz about a song. and I don't know what it is, but there's just something about Nashville buzzing about a song that just helps it always. What do people not understand about how the Nashville scene works? In what way?

Generally, I mean, it is a, it's a fucking engine for music. It's a factory for music. But at least from my perspective, the fact that you have a room where anybody who typically you've got like the writer credit of dude, you were over the far side,

chewing on a toothpick or whatever, like, thank you for being in the room. You contributed to this. The fact that you will have multiple different rooms going at one time, an artist will bounce between those if they're really, really trying to crank it. It seems to me like there aren't many scenes like Nashville when it comes to writing music, maybe anywhere on the planet. It's very different. I mean, I think Nashville's work ethic is better than other cities I've written in. I think that top liners, like lyric and melody, or at least lyric writers, storytellers, I think it's the best in the world. I think that Nashville has the greatest storytellers in the world. And it is. It's a machine. And it all starts with the song, which I think is really cool,

man. And like right now, today, what time is it right now? It's 10-11 right now. There are more, there's probably 300 rooms of people writing songs right now in Nashville trying to get the next hit. Excuse me, and there's a lot of those songs that are going to have potential to be the next, you know, and within the next year, a big old hit. And it's kind of off to the races from there, you know. So I think it's the coolest thing ever.

Is there something about country as a musical style which affords storytelling more room than other genres do? Yeah, sure. I think that can go back to a long time ago. And, you know, like, much of country music's biggest songs have been stories. And so I just think it's a pattern. If that's kind of what you're getting at, I mean, basically are you just saying, like, why is it easier or more common to write stories in country than any other thing?

To a degree, yeah. And then is there something to do with the structure of country as a genre which affords more room for storytime? Like a rock, right? Or just very unique ways to piece a story together and then keep on looping things back. I don't know. That's a really good question. If I was to like put my total amateur theory forward, it's so lyric driven. It's so vocals heavy. Are there many country songs where people go, dude, I just love the riff, right? Well, no. But with something like caramel by Sleep Token, that plucky little intro thing that it has is as, yeah, exactly. Like the first time I ever heard it, I thought, is this like some like regaton Jamaican inspired? Because it almost does have that sound. Like bonging-g-g-g-g-g. So I'm like, all right, well, that is as much a part.

and if you move into metal or more hard stuff, well, the riff actually can be the lead. That's what people love. But with country, very rarely, is it going to be that? It's much more about it's driven by the... Yeah, it's way less about the music for sure. Yeah. Like their arrangement.

I think that producers would argue, you know, like my producer, Joey, is like, you've got to fill the space and, you know, takes a lot of time in the studio to make sure, like, the parts are right and that everything is catchy, and there's just a bunch of, that all the spaces are filled, but no, it is very much, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's all about the, um, the lyrics, you're right. And very, I mean, the vocal is out front and that's everything.

At least right now, people can argue that like that, that subgenre of country that's like Whiskey Myers and, and a lot of the sync country is like, like, S Y, and C, like, you know, a lot of the stuff that you hear on the TV shows and stuff is more about music and, and less about lyric. But, um, I don't know. I can't really speak to that, but, um, no, you're, you're totally right. It's just the way it's always been, and the country has never really been about anything other than the lyrics and the vocal, you know, or both at the same time. Talk to me about where inspiration and creativity comes from for you or what sort of your creative process looks like, because you've got a bunch of stuff going on, high volume writing for other people. I've heard you say it's between sort of two and three days a week that you're cranking that out. Yeah, on a good, like it went in a good, yeah.

When you're not on tour, you go a little bit of time, maybe not on your dad. But then you've also got your own stuff, you've got your own obligations, but then you've also got this balance between volume of output and quality of output. You can't be doing five songs a day, three days a week, and maximizing in the same way that you would if it was spending a little bit more time. So I'm interested in this balance, yeah, inspiration and creativity with output. I mean, you know, the one cool thing about Nashville, before I even get into this, is we all stand, the songwriters all stand on each other's shoulders. And, you know, thankfully, there's so much, like, collaboration and, um, um, camaraderie within that, you know, in Nashville that, like, you go into a room with some people and, um, like, I might be exhausted. I might have not been in a good, like, idea headspace. And, uh, you go in and, like, you're both. or whoever you're writing with has the idea.

And it's just like, oh, thank God. You know what I mean? That pressure is off. And now I can just latch on to this idea and help write this in the room. But, you know, so that, you know, so your collaborators always make it a lot easier on you. It's like if you and I, or it's like if you asked me to move this table across the room or we got six people to do it and the weight is a lot lighter. And that's what it's always felt like for me. So first and foremost, if you don't have an idea, don't let your panic or your, your inhibition put that, you know, the cloud over your creative bubble because you just have to always trust that somebody's going to have something if you don't, you know.

And that helps with the creative process. But, man, for me, I just, I have a running list of, I'll scroll fast and nobody steals my shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can blur it. I'll see. So I can, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I'm writing after this today, too. Amazing.

But these are just all song, either lines or notes or whatever. And it dates back to like probably 10 years ago. It's just a running list of notes. Mine is short. I see people scroll through theirs and they're super long and I'm like, damn, bro. Well, you keep on turning them into songs, which is an advantage. Well, that's true. And then you have to delete it.

Sometimes it's like sad. You're like, damn, I've been looking at that idea for, you know, two or three years and you delete it. But, man, yeah. And, you know, I know this is not exactly what you were getting at, but I love talking about this because it's so like any other office or whatever it may be. It's like you walk, you, everybody has their ideas and then you walk into a publishing house or somebody, usually a lot of times these days it's either somebody's studio or their home studio. But like you just walk in and you know everybody now. So it's just like it's there's not, it's not this like light of candle kumbaya, you know, like somebody's like, man, I just went through this horrible heartbreak. Like, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, it's just, it's not like that. But I love that it's,

that we can like take a moment where we're, we're walking in and we're like, well, you know, and you get your coffee. You get down to business. And, you know, I'm big deer hunter. And most of a lot of Nashville riders are big deer hunters. So right now we're just talking about deer hunting. And then everybody goes, oh, well, let's see here. And then somebody's like, you know, hearts on fire. And you just start throwing out random ideas. And, uh, and it's just one of them sticks. And then, you write it because everybody in the room is a professional songwriter, and then a year later, it's like a seven week number one, dude.

It's like, it's just crazy to me. But what I'm getting out is how not, it's not like, it's not as, you would never think that it's like not a creative, you know, from the heart kind of thing because it's country music and like these, the stories are so good and they make people cry. But these songwriters like myself and other people, it's like we're not crying in the room, but when we write a line,

we're like, this is going to, this is going to hammer somebody. It's going to make, like, you know, and we mean that not in a funny way, but like, in a very, like, you know, like, this is going to help a lot. Like, when we wrote weight in the truck, when we, like, finished that song, and Jordan Schmidt and his home studio, like, played that song top down, we all looked at each other and we were like, dude, this is going to destroy some people. And that's like, we did our job that day, you know, and, um, but anyway, it's just, I love the creative process. I probably went way off on a tangent, but I just, I love talking about how. not creative, the creative process looks, you know, and we're not sitting in a viby room. And some places are like that, and that's totally fine. Like, I know L.A., it's a lot more about getting in the mood and...

Waving sage or burning some sage, waving that around. Yeah, you know, and certain candles, it smell a certain way and all that. But man, in Nashville, it's truly just a bunch of normal guys and girls, normal-looking people that are just, their brains are just wired different and they're incredibly good at what they do. but they, you know, and it just, you just would never know it. And I just think that's the coolest thing ever. Some of the most creative people in the world, some people in the world, some people in this town have the ability to make people like ball their eyes out that live

anywhere that, anywhere that can speak English, you know, and they just are like a, you know, a chubby dude that just goes to the grocery store every other day and, and lets his dogs out every night and out, you know, the afternoon. Like, it's just, it's cool to me. It's like the coolest thing ever. That's sick, man. If you struggle to stay asleep because your body gets too hot or too cold, this is going to help. Eight Sleep just released their brand new Pod 5 Ultra, which includes the world's first temperature

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sometimes I'll come across something that I've never heard of before. There was this love letter that Richard Feynman wrote to his wife. I stumbled upon it and was thinking about it for ages before I actually talked about it because I didn't know if I could say it without crying. And it's basically this love letter to his wife, Darlene, that he hasn't written for quite a long time. And then about two-thirds of the way through the love letter, you find out that she's dead.

And he's writing this to his wife that's passed away. Oh, my God, dude. So you like... Ah! Bro, it's... Do you want me to read it to you? Let me read it to you. God, I don't know.

I don't think I've ever cried on camera before, but sure. Let's see if we can do it. Jesus Christ. Well, I've already... Tear up literally just, like, saying it. But you've already... At least you've given it away, so it's... It takes the shock away.

I've warned you a little bit. Spoiler. October 17th, 1946. De Arlene, I adore you, sweetheart. I know how much you like to hear that, but I don't only write it because you like it. I write it because it makes me warm all over inside to write it to you. It is such a terribly long time since I last wrote to you,

almost two years, but I know you'll excuse me because you understand how I am, stubborn and realistic, and I thought there was no sense to writing. But now I know, my darling wife, that it is right to do what I have delayed in doing, and that I have done so much in the past. I want to tell you I love you. I want to love you. I will always love you. I find it hard to understand in my mind what it means to love you after you are dead, but I still want to comfort and

take care of you, and I want you to love me and care for me. I want to have problems to discuss with you. I want little projects with you. I never thought until just now that we can do that. What should we We started to learn to make clothes together, or learn Chinese, or get a movie projector. Can't I do something now? No, I'm alone without you. And you were the idea woman and general instigator of all our wild adventures. When you were sick, you worried that you could not give me something that you wanted to and thought I needed.

You needn't have worried. Just as I told you then, there was no real need because I loved you in so many ways so much. and now it is clearly even more true. You can give me nothing. Now, yet, I love you so that you stand in my way of loving anyone else. But I want you to stand there. You, dead, are so much better than anyone else alive. Oh my God.

I know you will assure me that I am foolish and that you want me to have full happiness and don't want to be in my way. I bet you are surprised that I don't even have a girlfriend, except you, sweetheart. after two years. But you can't help it, darling, nor can I. I don't understand it, for I have met many girls and very nice ones, and I don't want to remain alone, but in two or three meetings, they all seem ashes. You only are left to me. You are real. My darling wife, I do adore you. I love my wife. My wife is dead. P.S., please excuse my not mailing this, but I don't know your

you address. Oh my God. Jesus, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm, that's, that's insane. It's, it's, it's, it's, like, is that real, that's a real thing he did for his real wife? So like, there's still, there's so much poetry and, and, I mean, I, there's so much, to me, part of the, the, the, the, the, the, the trick is, is not revealing the thing until it's, like, the perfect time, right? So, like, that's the thing. You don't understand. I struggle to know what it means to love you after you are dead. Yeah. And in, and the songwriting, from a songwriting, you would probably wait to the very end, you know, to do that. But even still, like, it's, waiting on that is such a poetic, it's such a, I mean, it's, it's, it's a simple, you know,

we call it a trick, but, but, uh, yeah, that's beautiful. I mean, it's, I'm trying to think of a song that I have or that I know of that has like a twist at the very end of a song um but you kind of have to like oh shit I got to listen to that again you know like I missed I missed it's like an M-night Shyamalan movie and you miss yeah like Christopher Nolan or whatever yeah yeah yeah yeah and you're like wait he was dead the whole time but he was talking to that person wait he wasn't talking to her he was talking to nobody yeah yeah that's that's those are those are the best man so for me finding something like that uh is the kind of equivalent of going into the room and being like fuck like is this right is this and then you finally find something and you go this deserves to

get out there like this is how can I craft this in a way there's other little bits and people most of the time it's not a big chunk right it's you tell a story and then you repurpose it you rework it around uh I've heard you say dark songs tell the truth in a way happy songs can't yeah it's weird how so I don't know because people maybe it's just me maybe I'm just like just darker than maybe I even think I am, but like I have just like songs about dark things, even if there's a hopeful, like a wait in the truck, you know, that's like a very,

it's like a hero story, but people just gravitate towards that more. I've always found, I don't know why, but like, I'm trying to think of another, a good example, but, um, I don't know. I mean, again,

study. I haven't done, you know, I haven't surveyed a thousand people, but it just seems that like sad songs or like really, really good heartbreak songs or death, you know, people dying songs, even if they are, they have a happy, uh, lesson in them, like a live like you were dying kind of thing. There's just people, people attach themselves to that stuff more. Um, I do think that there's a lot of, like a lot of dark moments in people's lives. And I think that, you know, If you can find a way to relate to that and that be a song, then you're going to probably attach to that pretty hard. But yeah, I don't know why, but I just feel like, and it's so weird,

dark songs are so much easier to write. You think? Yeah, for me, I mean, for me personally, and it's like if you have a, you know, if somebody threw out a song called The Best Day Ever or whatever, you know, I'd be like, I don't know, man. The worst day ever. Yeah, I'd be like, how would you spend,

would you spend that a certain way? Like, yeah, yeah, exactly. That's weird. Maybe that's just me. My wife kind of, she kind of gives me hell a lot. And, uh, or let's just say gives me encouragement. Because, uh, I'll, you know, this last record I had spoke a lot about mortality, like a lot. And, uh, a lot of it was in a very positive way of like, appreciate your life now because, you know, one day you won't be here.

But, um, she was like, you need to write happier songs. Stop fucking whining. Yeah, yeah, dude. You're so emo. Yeah. Yeah. Like, write some happier stuff. So maybe I should.

but it's just it's not as easy it's well i guess uh luke comes out maybe the one before last um that was everything's great and life's going well and you know dad's getting a bit older but my son's growing up and he misses we when i'm away but my wife's good and he's like okay well that's that's that's a pivot right from like this is broken and that's not so great yeah true yeah he kind of had the emo in his own way right in his own way right and cut the fringe off yeah yeah um Yeah, it is a really interesting blend to think about why people resonate. Here's one thing. I think people feel alone in their sadness in a way that causes them to try and seek companionship or comfort.

So like, fuck, like somebody else feels that. Yeah. As opposed to, if everything's going great and if you're happy, like, yeah, sure, it's nice that someone else is also happy along with you or whatever. It's hard to, like, relate to somebody that's so weird. I don't know why that is a thing, but you're totally right. You're like, you're having a great, I'm having a great day. You know, like, nobody ever says that. But if somebody's having a bad day, you're like, oh, my God.

Come here. Let me. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, every man knows God when he's at his lowest. Right? You reflect so much more. It was this cool story from a coach of mine, Joe. He talks about his daughter.

She was like nine at the time. And she was crying in the bathroom. And the way that she was crying, he said, you don't sound that sad to me. You sound pissed off. And she's like, I am. He said, well, you know when you're crying in the bathroom, how often you're pissed off and how often you're sad? He says, about half the time. He's like, well, how can you cry?

Like, why are you crying if you're angry half the time? If you're pissed off, how come you're crying? And he says, well, when I'm angry, everybody runs away. but when I cry, my sister comes and looks after me. I just thought it was such a brilliant insight into this sort of the pro-social, not seductive but attractive gravitational force of sadness. And I think a lot of the time, even when people are mad, they sometimes turn it into being sad because when people are mad,

others run away, but when they're sad, people come and help them. I wonder if that's maybe a little bit of something. I don't know. That's a weird... That's strange dynamic. The grooves of your brain, because nobody is outwardly thinking, like, maybe if I just act like I'm sad, that's like some caveman brain thing that's been around a long time. But people do it for some reason. That's crazy.

Yeah, I think so. In other news, you've probably heard me talk about Element before, and that is because I'm frankly dependent on it. For the last forever in my life, I've started every single day the same way, which is with this in a cold glass of water. element is electrolytes. It's got no BS in it. It's got everything that you need and nothing that you don't at scientifically backed levels. Sodium, potassium and magnesium at the perfect ratio with no sugar or artificial ingredients or any other junk. It plays a critical role in reducing muscle cramps and fatigue. It optimizes your brain health, regulate your appetite, curbs your cravings. And this stuff in a cold glass of water is like a sweet, salty, orangey nectar that I look forward to every single day. And I genuinely feel the difference when I take it versus when I don't, which is why I keep talking about it and why you. you need to try it. Best of all, there's no questions asked refund policy with an unlimited duration so you can buy it completely risk-free, try it for as long as you want. If you don't like it for any reason, they just give you your money back. Plus, they offer free shipping in the US. Right now, you can get a free sample pack of elements most popular flavors with your first purchase

and that money back guarantee by going to the link in the description below. Or heading to drinklmn.t.com slash modern wisdom. That's drinklmn t.com slash modern wisdom. You said New Wilden, a lot of mortality. What inspired that? I don't know. It's just maybe a headspace I've been in of appreciating life a little bit more. You know, I was in a pretty bad bus accident a couple years ago, and it kind of opened my eyes to a lot of just how we can kind of go like that.

and it's a miracle that any of us survive. We all survive. It's a miracle that any of us did. And I don't know. I feel like since then, just my mortality or the fragility of my mortality or my life, whatever, however, that's supposed to be worded, it just has been a little more apparent thing for me recently.

And so I think that's why I don't really know. But, and I've already, like the songs I've written since that record, like nothing, nobody's died i haven't died i'm not gonna die you know but it just i had to get it out i don't know what it was but there's you know there's songs about like there's songs about appreciating it and there's songs about like um i mean i don't know i have to kind of go back and read the the track list now but there's it kind of touches just on different different ways to approach your uh your mortality um and uh yeah i just think it probably has to do a lot with the headspace that i've been in post bus wreck. It's been three years, but I've kind of been writing this record for a year and a half or two years.

It was still pretty fresh at the time. Would you mind telling the story about the bus? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We were, we played a show in Bristol. It was a Saturday night in Bristol. I was opening for Morgan. And then we decided to leave early so we could get back to town because Bristol, Tennessee is only like four hours away. And you gain an hour so it doesn't feel like you get in quite as late, you know. So we were 20 miles from town, maybe less. We were like 15 miles back from town. And my tour manager at the time was already sleeping in his bunk. And my photographer and I were awake in the front lounge listening to something, listening to music.

And our bus driver pulled over on the side of the road and got, he came and went to to the bathroom. He stayed in there like five minutes, which was really weird, especially being this close to town. But we didn't, you know, we were drinking. We didn't really think anything about it. We were just like, it's kind of weird. And came out of the bathroom and I was like, Ricky, you good? And he ignored me, which we were like, what is he? But he had his Bluetooth thing in. So we always wonder if he was on the phone. So I stepped up and I was like, Ricky, you good? And he's like, yep, all good. I was like, all right, man. You know, he'll be there in a minute or whatever, I guess. And anyway, we started going back down the road. And then we just,

just the bus just went off in this like bottom we flipped like three times over and you're still in the front lounge so you're not strapped in at all you're yeah somebody said like shoes in a washing or shoes in a dryer uh and uh so what just because you must be sat and then feel the bus we got well we felt the rumble strips and then we felt us like going off the road like you know every now and then your driver will hit like rumble strips and you're everybody's like oh but we felt the left side hit the rumble strips and we knew we were going off the road. And it just, I don't know what it was, but when it flipped, it got airborne for a second. I could just, there was a moment of like silence before the thing.

And me and Tanner looked at each other and then just, we both just like, boom. It was like the hardest force I've ever felt in my life just got thrown to the other side. And then we both were like instantly knocked out. So I don't remember anything else. But the way the bus was laying, it's like, if it's driving down the road like this, right, it flipped here and then it flipped here and then it flipped here and that's where we like ended or whatever but I woke up I was the first one to wake up which sucked and my head was like wedged under this the window which had busted out and um and I there was like glass everywhere and there was a piece

of glass from the window like stuck in my head and I just had to like pull my head out front of this thing and I walked up it was this we went down a really steep hill so I had to walk up it wouldn't like steep like that ceiling by any means but it was probably a 15 foot you know like hill or whatever and um it was cold it was like 35 degrees and uh I was try I could not flag down a car it was like four in the more three or four in the morning and so I could not get a car I didn't have my phone I'm blind without my glasses so I couldn't see I thought everybody in the bus was dead because no everybody was nobody was conscious um So I was just helpless.

Like, I didn't know what to do. And so I went back to the bus to try to find my phone, but I couldn't fucking see. So, like, and I was wearing all black, so I couldn't find anything. I mean, the bus looked like, it looked like a bomb went off in there. It was just, it was just, you can't even describe it. You had to Google it. But, but, yeah, went back up to the highway. I'm in the road.

I had a white circle on my hoodie, and I'm in the road, like, shaking it, and then running to the side, nobody would stop. And then I heard my photographer. wake up and he was screaming bloody murder all this thing and and and um and then my tour manager somehow he was blocked in the back that the door was shut to the you know how have you been on a tour bus like yeah the doors you know so that door was shut somehow he got it open and uh i mean he's all banged up and he's like looking to me like you're looking at me right now and i was like i know and i was like we have to have a phone now and it was a miracle his phone somehow and all of that

craziness had gotten from his bunk to the front lounge, like slid somewhere, and it was at the bottom of a pile of, like, rubble inside the bus. And the second I said, we have to get a phone right now, his alarm to wake up because we would have gotten back to town went off. And so I literally reached down and to move all the, whatever the hell it was, got his phone, called 911. We were thankfully one exit away from like a hospital exit. It was like an exit built for like a big hospital complex. Ambulance was there in like five minutes. And yeah, so all that being said, rest in peace, Ricky, we wrecked because he had a brain tumor he didn't know about.

And so he had either an aneurism or a stroke or a seizure. It was probably a seizure because they sent him to Vanderbilt because they were asking him questions and he didn't know what day it was or where he was. And they were like, okay, he's head trauma. We need to get him somewhere. And they didn't find it for like a week. come to find out, he had a brain tumor, ended up killing him about a year later. Tanner, uh, broke like every, my photographer broke like every bone in his body. And I just laugh. We can laugh about it now because it was just crazy. But I remembered seeing his, uh, his bone. He had a

compound fracture that broke the skin. So he had a bone sticking out of the top of his foot. And he kept telling the, uh, we're late, we're, and now we're in the bus and we're helping. I'm just, you know, the ambulance is there. And he. kept pulling on his bone and he was like there's a stick in my foot and they're like pull it on it it's a bone but um yeah Tanner broke his neck his ribs his back his foot he was I mean he was so man he's a smaller guy and and um I uh Noah the guy in the bunk he actually turned out the best because he didn't he was just yeah yeah yeah exactly and he was pretty banged up but no serious injuries and I just had a concussion and like a few staples in my head and I fractured my back,

but it wasn't even like not very serious. You know what I mean? Like I hurt for a couple months. It's a compression fracture. So I guess when we hit, I think my spine just did like an accordion. Do you feel a little bit shorter than you did before the- Well, I physically was like a half an inch shorter. But they missed it in the hospital and I like a week later cat, my wife and I are on a walk and I was like, man, I feel this, like, jolt of just, like, pain that goes through my body. And I got, went and got an x-ray, and it was like a bunch of square vertebrates. And then one just looked like that right in the middle. And they call out a compression fat fracture.

And I said, you know, I haven't gotten it looked out again, but it takes six, eight months to, there's nothing you can do. You just kind of gets back to normal. Just go steady. But all that being said, yeah, it was a very, very, just unpredictable. you know, when you think about it, like, we weren't, we didn't deal with a drunk driver, we didn't hit a deer or just, you know what I mean? We didn't. There wasn't icey. There was no snow, no bad weather. It wasn't because he was being negligent. No, he just, he had a brain episode and, and it just happened to be then, you know, I mean, it's such a freak thing. Do you think

that his trips to the bathroom before were early, oh, there's something going on? I don't feel too right. Yeah, sorry, I forgot. I spoke to that. That's exactly what was happening. So he was, entering into, I think it was an aneurism. But whatever had happened had happened, and it was slowly getting worse and worse or whatever. And it's so funny, I've heard my dad had a good friend that he used to work. My dad was a high school referee, football referee, and one of his best friends had aneurism as a referee on the field.

And it was very similar because he said, his name was Lewis. And he said, Lewis, they looked over and he was laid out. And they just thought he got knocked over by a player and he got up. And he was like, no, I'm fine. but every minute that went by he was acting crazier and weirder and then sure enough he almost died but it was a miracle man you should google if you google just like my name in the in the bus accident the pictures will come up there's one of the inside of the bus look it up that's pretty gnarly fuck before we continue i've been drinking agy one every morning for years now because it is

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First off, I'm really, really glad that you guys are all still here and it feels thank you, man, a lot like a miracle. Secondly, I've been on a good few tour buses, single deckers, dude, double deckers, especially around Europe. That's scary, dude. That would have been different. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But every single time, especially on a double decker when you're at the front lounge

on the top, it's you and a piece of glass and then just the road right in front of you. Yeah. Every single time that I've been on a bus like that that's been moving, there is a bit of me that goes, like in cars, you're supposed to have your seatbelt on at all times. Yeah. You need to spend a lot of time touring, which means you're going to have to be back in a bus a good bit, and you would have had to have got back on a bus. Yeah.

What was the first time that you got back on a tour bus for a long night journey like after that experience and sort of how are you now with that? This is a, this was a journey. This was like a very long. So I forgot this mentioned, but this was three weeks before my wedding. My wife was on her bachelorette party the last night. Again, it was three in the morning. They're in New Orleans.

They're all hammered, having a great time. I FaceTime her, and I'm just like bleeding, bleeding out of my nose and my head. I just look like, you know, I look like I've been in a car accident. And I'm freaking out because I've hit my head really. hard and I'm actually pretty with it but I just I like a brain injury has always freaked me out and I know how that works is sometimes you can hit your head and then you don't know it till like hours later if you don't go get it checked out and da da da da da and anyway so I was like hey I like we've been in a bus rack like I love you

I don't know what's going to happen we're going to the hospital right now and so she's freaking out so all that because and that's my my number one thought was like I have to get married like I literally have my wedding like do not fucking you know like you're going to be fine don't die before the wedding don't Hold on before the wedding. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So all that being said, we got married. We went to, the week, like a week or two after that was CMA week, which was very busy and it was a time where, which is this week is also CMA week.

I was, I think I'm pretty sure I was, like nominated for a lot. It was a very busy, like, a good, like, successful week, but I was like a lot going on that week. With a bandage wrapped around you had. Yeah, I had won, I wouldn't be my songwriter of the year that year. just a lot of, and then immediately after the, like the night of the CMAs, Callie and I, my wife and I flew to L.A. to go to Thailand for a honeymoon. So after the wreck, I never had like a time to like process it. It was just like I got better. And when I could

kind of walk and, you know, had my head was kind of in good shape. Like, it was like getting ready for the wedding. It was like immediately. So that December, I played a few shows that were not very long runs and we took the bus, but I wouldn't go overnight. I would do it. in the morning. Like we would leave early in the morning and make like that six or seven hour trip. And that was a daylight. You can,

you know, you're talking to the bus driver. And that was to make you feel more comfortable. Yeah. To avoid the travel anxiety? Right. And it was a different, obviously a different driver.

The guy still have now and he's great. But there's just something about, you know, having the door open to the front and seeing him in there and just know him we're in good hands and all that. And he's driving like 40 miles an hour on the interstate to make sure we're comfortable. But it was really bad.

I still just had, any sort of bumps or anything, it was really tough. But a year later, uh, to the day, uh, of the bus accident, out of nowhere, I had a full blown panic attack on, on the golf course thinking I was having a heart attack. And I've never had one before. I've had very mild anxiety, mostly hangover induced. You know what I mean? Like it's just somewhere, it was somewhere I didn't want to be, blah, blah, blah, blah,

but I've never really had like true crippling anxiety. that like is real anxiety. And, um, and then the next night, I had, I had like two back to back and I was like, I don't know what is going on.

And, um, went to, went to this intensive therapy thing and we kind of dug up the bus and I did a lot of what they call EMDR therapy. Yep. And, um,

man, it, since I did that and this other thing at a different facility where they, they like run these like electrical like things through your brain and sort of help sort of center back your, thought process or whatever, and between those two things, I haven't even thought about, I'll think about it, but it's such a distant, not scary memory now. I really truly have rewired that, logically processed how random and crazy and improbable the, you know, it is to happen again and all

that. So long story, but that's, that's, that's, it took a year. And, and then kind of my brain, it sort of, you know, it all kind of came back because I never really processed it. And, but, When the weather got cold and the leaves kind of started changing. And you know what I mean? I kind of started associating with that time of year again. It just came out of me. It was crazy. Yeah.

We're here, man. Oh, my God. And I still got a staple that my head swallowed somewhere. The doctor was like, it's in there, but you'll be right. It'll be fine. You're setting off the metal detectors every time you fly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, every time I get an MRI, I'm like, I'm going to just leave that.

Maybe it'll fling out. Yeah. Holy shit, man. I mean, I was in, the only equivalent I had, when I was 20, I got hit head on by a snowplow at 60 miles an hour. Oh, in a car? Yeah, I was driving. So the snowplow sort of listed across into our lane and just clipped us like that far into the car. But when it's a snowplow, all fucking, both airbags deployed, windscreen shattered.

It like came down my side so the door was up against the sort of side of my shoulder. But the car stayed on the road. So we just pulled over. But that moment where you said I looked at my other buddy while it was like during it happening was exactly the same thing. I looked at my business partner for like a split second, which I can still see like what that looks like and feels like now. But the travel anxiety thing in a much, much, much less bad crash than yours with, you know, I walked away from it. For three, four months afterward, if I was ever in a contra flow without a central reservation, because the side that you'd drive on. And you're on the left side.

Correct. Yeah, okay, that makes sense. Okay. I was trying to figure out how I was like... Yeah, sorry about that. It is the right side of the road, though. You are next to cars coming toward you. And that's the reason that you drive on that side so that you know how far you are from other cars so that it's not on the off side so that you don't accidentally clip someone. That makes sense. And it's the same here, right? It's just the other side of the road.

You're still on the inside network against the traffic that's coming that way. But what that means is you've got, you know, vehicles that are sometimes only four feet away from you and that's just how people drive. That's how the roads work. But that made me feel that made me feel very, very anxious and given the fact that that was me

from an incident way less, yeah, it must be the fact that you've done the EMDR and whatever that, like electrodes, I know exactly what you're talking about. They do it at Ways to Well in Austin. That's a real credit to the effectiveness

of those sorts of treatments for overcoming that because that's now liberated you to be able to go back and do your thing yes totally how much worse would your quality of life be if you hadn't gone through you'd still be random panic attacks with fucking oh here comes October November again like ready for the golf course panic attack to happen yeah dude and and the thing is is like it there were so many thoughts because like that happened and then that panic kind of for some reason had it was like it all just sort of came back and I was like I'm not really going to be able to tour anymore like what am i going to do my i don't even know who i am like my brain is in a completely horrible place and like tour i rely on touring and like you know like i mean it was just

it was a mess for a second but i got it fixed really quick so do you think vulnerability and talking about emotions is becoming more acceptable in yes male artists now i think so and i hope that it gets better um you know i i i i i i i I don't think that anybody that talks about that is considered soft by any means. And I know a lot of, I've talked to a lot of artists, very successful artists that deal with their, they're just like, man, my anxiety has been so bad recently. And I just, I wish the more public you can make it and the more like people that can openly share that they deal with stuff, then like the next time you're going through something,

you know, if you're in an award show or something, you can just go find your buddy and be like, hey, I'm freaking out. You know what I mean? Like, just the more acceptable it is, I feel like a lot of a big part of depression and anxiety that makes it worse or, yeah, that makes it worse is the shame that comes with it because it's not, it's not supposed to be okay or, or you're considered weak or whatever or an inconvenience or whatever that may be. And I just think the more open, especially men, are about their mental health, the less,

the more that the shame and the guilt and the burden and all that will just sort of go away. Especially with artists, I mean, we're not, we're not, human beings were not designed to be famous. We weren't designed to just to travel and to, especially artists, we weren't designed to, like, experience insane levels of serotonin and adrenaline, three nights in a row, four or five nights in a row sometimes. There's a lot that, that, you know, people are going to, roll their eyes, I know, and just be like, well, grass is must be nice, blah, blah, blah,

but man, it's just, it's a mental thing that you go through that, like, you know, it's just, it's just, it's different. It's just, I don't think that our brains are wired to experience some of the stuff that, that singers or anybody, anybody that's a public figure experiences and, and, uh, can take a toll on you, man, male, female, whatever age, whatever. This episode is brought to you by Momentus. If your sleep's been off, taking ages to fall sleep, waking up at random times, feeling groggy in the morning, Momentus's sleep hacks are here to help. They are not your typical knock you out supplement overloaded with melatonin, just the most evidence-based ingredients at perfect doses to help you fall asleep more quickly, stay asleep

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That's how confident they are that you'll love it. Right now, you can get 35% off and they ship internationally by going to the link in the description below or heading to live momentous.com slash modern wisdom at checkout. Using the code modern wisdom at checkout. That's L-I-V-E-M-O-M-T-O-U-S dot com slash modern wisdom and modern wisdom a checkout. I've heard you say country boys feel everything. They just don't talk about it. Yeah, that's, that's true.

true. Just bury it deep on down. That's like the, that's the philosophy. My grandfather used to say, talking about my grandmother, you know, she'd have a bad day and he would just say, oh, she's got that damn depression again. Like it was a flera, you know, like it was a rash or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The pollen count is high today. The depression count is high today. Yeah, yeah. She's got that damn depression again. Fuck. Well, yeah, I think so. I think especially in the country, people just didn't have time. They didn't have the I don't know. It was like, it was like,

you just, yeah, kind of like, there's no time to worry about that. We've got to figure out how to make a living and whatever, whatever that may be. That's an interesting point. And I guess, ties into what you said about the bus story, that if you're super busy,

if you've got lots to do, if there's tasks to be completed, can pretty easily sort of suppress and hide away, little whispers. Yeah, distraction. Fleeting thoughts. Well, I mean, yeah, sure. Maybe I get a little anxious on the bus, but I've got the show to play tonight. And it's sort of the underlying emotion is swept away by a much bigger emotion, which is the dopamine, the serotonin, the adrenaline, all that stuff. But I do think certainly in the music industry on that ascendancy thing,

people can hide the emotions that they should be paying a lot of attention to with the energy and the adoration. I mean, I'm on tour at the moment. I played the cannery in Nashville this week and I was in, I did Boston, Chicago, Nashville, back to back to back. So three shows, three states, three days this week.

And something that happens at the first show, by the third show, you can't even remember that it's happened. Yeah. You're like, where the, I accidentally called, I accidentally called Nashville, sorry, I called Chicago, L.A. way deep into the show and said it was a Monday and then said it was a Saturday and it wasn't. It was a Friday. And I'm like, dude, it happens, man. It kills your memory. And it, it, one thing I don't like that I wish I was better at, but also it just, it's so hard as, you can have a cool moment or experience or have a cool conversation with a fan, you know, at a place. And then the next time. you see them, it's, they're devastated that you don't remember. You know what? And it's like, I'm so sorry. And they're like, no, we talked about like my dead mom or so, you know what I mean?

Something really sad. And like, you don't remember. And it's just, it's hard to remember when you're just gone and. I have a friend. I have a friend who's hack for that is whenever he meets anybody. This is a bit of a cheap trick. But whenever he meets anybody, he says, have we met before? And if you haven't, they go, no.

But, and he's like, I swear, I must have got you mixed up. But for him to do it the other way, because it, for, I guess if you're deeper into your touring career and you're like, you know, maybe 50% or 25% of the people you have met, they're like, yeah. Oh my God. And they go back home and they're like, oh, yeah, I totally remembered us. Yeah, I know. It is a cheap friend. But if, you know, like if I did that and then somebody was like, yeah, we talked about so-and-so, then I would remember.

Yes. But it's just that like the face and the, yeah. I had a, so James, my business partner in Newtonic, this thing. We both played the Apollo in London. Three and a half thousand people. We both sold it out separately. Got that in each time. That'll fuel the rest of the day.

He played the same show as me separate a couple of years before And we were messaging about it the other day And we were talking about this like what's happening on tour And he was like dude I played the biggest show of my life sold out 3,500 people in my home country He's like, I couldn't tell you anything about what happened I can't tell you anything I can kind of remember walking out And I've got all the photos

But I remember my show Through the lens of the photographer and the videographer now It's like I don't remember it from my own eyes and it's this this really interesting paradox that I've never thought about before until starting to do this. When you're in a flow state, which is what everybody's supposed to want to get into,

you're really unconscious, right? Like, stuff's just happening. You know you're set, you've dialed it in, you're halfway through the tour, like everything's locked. Yeah. And you forget what you're doing. And it's really enjoyable,

but in this weird way, you're not there. You're not there. You weren't there for it. Yeah. Like it just happened. Have you seen? say that movie soul? No. Is that, that's the Disney one? Yeah, and he's a piano player and he dies and he goes to like this purgatory thing. Bits of it, yeah. There's one, there's a, there's one little section of this, like,

in between heaven kind of thing that they go to and it's all these people doing like weird tasks. And he's like, what is that? And he, they're all like, they're in the zone. So it's like they're, you know, that's like, it's like, their soul is like, and the place is called the zone. And it's like a, one guy's just a sign spinner on the street, you know, but one guy could be a guitar player or whatever it is, but it's, it's the flow state. It's like their body is on earth, but like their soul, you know, they're in that different, different world, like a different place. Isn't that strange, though, that the thing that you want to do most and the place that you want to get to as a performer is the point where you make the fewest memories.

Like, you're not there for it. Yeah. It's just as well. It's a complete paradox, dude. It's just as well that we've got. The moment you want to remember the most are like, are those, but it's the, it's the, it's the, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a But the mindset you want to be in is the same as that. Yeah. That's insane. Yeah. Yeah.

The best moments of your career are the ones that you remember the least. Yeah. Isn't that wild? Yeah, it sucks, dude. That's crazy. Well, I mean, fortunately, I was going to say you live with like a million cameras around you, which helps. But yeah, there's a bit of a, there's a bit of a melancholy.

Even I've had that, right? Looking back and I go, was I there? And then there's a bit of guilt. I'm like, should I, I should have been more present. Maybe I should have been more present. You go, well, what's your job? Is your job to be there and to be present? Or is your job to put on a good show for the fucking 3,500 people that have paid to come and see you?

Right. Yeah, and do your job. Be a professional. Yep. It's a strange one, dude. It's a battle, man. I just, yeah, I feel like the, I don't know. I approach a lot of, especially my singing career because of how it came together, like, very randomly that I just,

I don't put a lot of pressure on myself to, I don't know, I just approach it very lightly. And I'm just like, dude, I'm so lucky to be here that just, I don't know. I just approach everything that comes with that just lightly and everything. I usually should be very proud and all that. But I just try to think, you know, none of this is a big deal. But not, I'd just being like, you know, I don't know. I've always just thought, like, man, these people you're playing for are just people. and you were just a dude and you still are,

but like you got lucky with your record deal and your artist's career and never really planned on doing that. So why not just enjoy it and try not to beat yourself up? But there's definitely times where I, you know, like I'll do something and then be like, did I soak in enough of that?

Like there's a, it's funny, there's a festival in Michigan. Brian O'Connell, I hope you watch this because you need to hear this. It was called Faster Horses, a live nation festival. And it was by far, I played it twice

and it was the greatest crowd I've ever played for and they canceled it and the last time I played it I remembered it and it was great but I just always assumed that we would be back and it was like

I'm talking like nothing will ever ever ever ever ever beat it unless we went back there like it just will not happen and then they canceled it probably forever and it just like that sucks and it's like

that's a moment where I beat myself up because I was like man we just got off stage and just had a few beers and went to bed Like, you know, like we should have celebrated that more or enjoyed that moment a lot more, done something because have we known it was going to be canceled, you know, we would have really soaked that moment in. Dude, that's life. Yeah.

That's life. Yeah. Right? Yep. You don't know the last time that you're going to bounce your daughter on your knee. Oh, don't you can't. Yeah, dude. I can't even think about it.

You don't know the last time that you're going to hug your grandmother. You don't know the last time that you're going to get to play a live show. You don't know the last time that you're going to get to be with that bus driver. and the assumption that we always have more is why we don't realize that stuff is slipping away from us during the time. But on the flip side, I think being gentle with yourself of you don't know what the future holds.

You don't know what's going to happen next. Everybody experiences that the exact same, I think, too, right? Yeah, I should have been more present. I should have remembered it more. I should have treated it with more divinity or sacredness or care and attention. And it's only in retrospect. As soon as you say, I should,

it's like, yeah, but you didn't know. And there's nothing you can do about it. And if you could have done, you'd have gone and said to the bus driver, let's just put whatever, like the I should, I should, I should. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, Hardy, I appreciate the fuck out of him. Thank you so much, man. That's a great conversation, dude.

This is rolled. What's next? Are you on tour? What's coming up? Yeah, country country tour starts in Canada and February. Apparently that's the time to go because they're bored to death up there. Country Country Tour Canada in February. I've got the Hardy Fund.

Best way to do it is just Google the Hardy Fund. and you can donate to that. It's my wife and I's charity that we're really excited about. Yeah, country, country and country, country, country, the album and the deluxe album. And that's it. Fuck yeah. Yeah, got some other stuff that I can't talk about yet, but super excited about. But yeah, I'm excited.

Appreciate you, man. Thank you so much.